Microwave cooking has become a very popular method for consumers to prepare food due to factors such as the nature of modern lifestyles, the relative ease of preparation generally associated with microwave cooking, and the relative speed at which these meals can be cooked or heated.
However, microwave cooking remains problematic in terms of at least certain food products, in that problems are still being experienced with the comparative taste, palatability, and/or texture of microwave cooked food products.
Microwaved flour-based products, in particular products containing yeast or chemical leavening agents, such as breads and cakes, suffer from the drawback that such products are often not pleasant in comparison to regular oven baked products. Microwave heating can be uneven and can result in toughness and the rapid onset of staleness, further complicating the development of agreeable microwaveable food products.
Attempts have been made to address the above shortcomings of the prior art by the development of “rich” formulations. These “rich” formulations contain high ratios of expensive non-flour ingredients and are typically low in water content. Microwave cooking depends on the moisture content of the formulation to be cooked and low water content “rich” formulations therefore take longer to cook.
Other more expensive formulations and complicated methods of manufacture for microwaveable compositions (food products) have been suggested to address some of the shortcomings in the prior art.
Despite the above shortcomings, industry, and in particular the fast food industry, continuously seeks to harness the advantages associated with microwave cooking in order to produce microwaveable food products, that can be prepared within a short space of time, while still being organoleptically pleasing to the consumer.
Furthermore, as the price of food products escalate, so industry attempts to find opportunities for cost-saving. Often, in the restaurant industry, prepared food products go to waste as a result of the difficulties associated with accurate catering. The desire to serve customers as rapidly as possible often results in food items being prepared in advance, only to go to waste when sufficient quantities have not been sold within the shelf-life of the prepared product.
Therefore, there remains a need for a microwaveable composition that at least partly addresses some of the current shortcomings in the art.
In particular, there remains a need for relatively low-cost microwaveable compositions that, when microwave cooked, produce food products that are of comparatively pleasant taste, palatability, and/or texture.
In particular, there remains the further need that these microwaveable compositions should be usable in the fast food industry, that is to say that these compositions should be capable of preparation, upon receiving the order from the consumer, within a time limit that is acceptable in this particular industry.
In particular, there remains the further need that these microwaveable compositions should be capable of microwave cooking from a frozen state within a time limit that is acceptable to the fast food industry, thereby reducing the wastage associated with unsold product.